Earnings call transcript: Rush Enterprises Q4 2024 beats expectations

Rush Enterprises reported its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings, surpassing market expectations with an earnings per share (EPS) of $0.91 against a forecast of $0.825. The company’s revenue also exceeded projections, reaching $2.01 billion compared to the anticipated $1.75 billion. Following this announcement, Rush Enterprises’ stock price rose by 4.9%, closing at $64.17 in after-hours trading. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company maintains a GOOD financial health score of 2.85, supported by strong profitability and momentum metrics.

Key Takeaways

• Rush Enterprises’ Q4 2024 EPS of $0.91 surpassed the forecast of $0.825.
• Revenue for the quarter reached $2.01 billion, exceeding expectations.
• Stock price increased by 4.9% post-earnings announcement.
• Annual revenues totaled $7.8 billion, with net income of $304.2 million.
• The company anticipates a challenging market environment in the first half of 2025.

Company Performance

Rush Enterprises demonstrated strong financial performance in Q4 2024, with both revenue and EPS surpassing forecasts. Despite a challenging industry environment, the company achieved annual revenues of $7.8 billion and net income of $304.2 million. With a market capitalization of $5.07 billion and a P/E ratio of 15.24, the company trades at levels suggesting it may be overvalued according to InvestingPro Fair Value calculations. The company’s strategic focus on expanding its national account sales force and technician workforce contributed to maintaining its market position.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $2.01 billion in Q4 2024, up from the forecast of $1.75 billion.
• Earnings per share: $0.91 in Q4 2024, beating the forecast of $0.825.
• Annual revenue: $7.8 billion.
• Net income: $304.2 million for the year.
• Cash dividend declared: $0.18 per common share.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Rush Enterprises reported an EPS of $0.91, exceeding the forecasted $0.825 by 10.3%. The revenue of $2.01 billion also surpassed expectations by 14.9%, marking a significant achievement for the company amid industry challenges.

Market Reaction

Following the earnings release, Rush Enterprises’ stock price increased by 4.9%, closing at $64.17. This movement reflects investor confidence in the company’s ability to outperform market expectations. The stock is approaching its 52-week high of $65.15, delivering an impressive 32.67% return over the past year. InvestingPro subscribers have access to 7 additional key insights about Rush Enterprises, including its consistent dividend growth record and strong liquidity position.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking ahead, Rush Enterprises expects a soft aftermarket demand in the early months of 2025 but anticipates market improvements in the latter half of the year. The company is cautiously optimistic about the used truck market and expects flat medium-duty truck sales. With a healthy current ratio of 1.45 and strong cash position, the company appears well-positioned to navigate market challenges. Potential pre-buy activity due to EPA emissions regulations and proposed tariffs on vehicles and parts are also on the horizon. For comprehensive analysis including detailed forecasts and valuation models, investors can access Rush Enterprises’ full Pro Research Report, available exclusively on InvestingPro.

Executive Commentary

Rusty Rush, CEO of Rush Enterprises, remarked, "2024 was a challenging year for the industry," highlighting the difficulties faced. He also noted, "We are seeing signs of activity that don’t tell me that we’re going to get better in the over-the-road business in the back half," emphasizing cautious optimism for the future.

Risks and Challenges

• High interest rates and economic uncertainty could impact demand.
• Ongoing freight recession presents challenges for growth.
• Proposed tariffs on vehicles and parts may increase costs.
• Uncertainties around EPA emissions regulations could affect sales.
• Challenging conditions in the used truck market.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts questioned the impact of potential tariffs on truck prices and the company’s strategy for managing general and administrative expenses. Executives reiterated their commitment to cost management and expressed no plans for broad-based pricing discounts.

Full transcript - Rush Enterprises A Inc (NASDAQ:RUSHA) Q4 2024:

Conference Operator: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rush Enterprise Reports Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Earnings Results. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After the speakers’ presentation, there will be a question and answer session.

Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I’d now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Rusty Rush, Chairman of Board’s Chief Executive Officer and President. Please go ahead.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our fourth quarter and year end twenty twenty four conference call. I have with me today Jason Wilder, Chief Operating Officer Steve Keller, Chief Financial Officer Jay Hazelwood, Vice President and Controller and Michael Goldstone, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Now Steve Keller will say a few words regarding forward looking statements. Certain statements we will make today are considered forward looking statements as defined in the Project Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Because these statements include risks and uncertainties, our actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, those discussed in our annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended 12/31/2023, and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As we mentioned in our news release, we had 7,800,000,000 in annual revenues for 2024 and our net income was $304,200,000 or $3.72 per diluted share. For the fourth quarter, our revenues were $2,000,000,000 and our net income was $74,700,000 or $0.91 per diluted share. We are also happy to announce a cash dividend of $0.18 per common share.

2024 was a challenging year for the industry, which faced persistent headwinds, including the ongoing freight recession, high interest rates and economic uncertainty. These factors hit over the road carriers hard, leading to weak demand for new Class eight trucks from that customer segment. However, our strength in public sector and vocational markets helped balance things out and we managed to hold our ground in a tough Class eight in our market. Our Class four-seven truck sales were strong across various customer segments and we outperformed the market in the medium duty truck sales. The used truck market remains challenging, but we continue to execute well on our sales strategy and we’re able to deliver strong profits.

The same challenging operating conditions that impact new Class A truck sales also impacted the aftermarket industry. But our sales force’s dedication to our strategic initiatives helped us to slightly outperform the industry despite the difficult operating environment that we faced in 2024. I am very proud of our financial results. Focusing on the aftermarket, our parts, service and body shop revenues were $2,500,000,000 last year, down 1.8% from 2023. Our absorption ratio was 132.2% compared to 135.3 in 2023.

Even though our aftermarket revenues were slightly down, we grew our market share by expanding our national account sales force, which allowed us to enhance our service to large strategic accounts. Demand was sluggish nearly over the road, energy and wholesale customers, but we saw strong sales in vocational, public sector and medium duty leasing customers. In 2025, we expect aftermarket demand to remain soft in the first few months due to the freight market continuing to struggle, which results in lower over the road fleet utilization rates. However, we are optimistic that that demand will pick up as the year goes on and the freight market improves. And we believe that our focus on growing our national account customer base and our other aftermarket strategic initiatives will result in revenue growth this year.

We are also committed to expanding our technician workforce in 2025, particularly mobile technicians, which will allow us to reduce vehicle dwell time in our shops, better serve our customers, increase back counterpart sales and grow market share. Regarding truck sales, we sold 15,465 new Class eight trucks in 2024, down 11.4% year over year, representing 6.1% of The U. S. Market and 1.7% of the Canadian market. Market conditions were tough with high inventory levels and competitive price.

However, our sales to specialty market customers helped offset weak demand from our over the road customers. ACT Research forecast U. S. And Canadian sales of new Class A trucks to be 277,200 units in 2025, basically flat with 2024. And we expect sales to be challenging in the first half of twenty twenty five.

We anticipate that demand will improve for the second half of the year as freight rates recover. In addition, despite uncertainty around engine emissions regulations, we believe the EPA’s clean diesel regulations will drive some pre buy activity later this year. We are optimistic that pre buys along with strong vocational sales will allow us to achieve strong new Class eight truck sales and keep pace with the market in 2025. Our Class four-seven new truck sales were up 5.1% year over year with 13,935 units sold in 2024, representing 5.3% of The U. S.

Market and 3.1% of the Canadian market. Medium duty vehicle production has stabilized and delivery lead times improved throughout the year. Our strategic focus on diversifying our customer base and focusing on large national accounts paid off and we outperformed the market in new Class four-seven truck sales. ACT Research forecasts U. S.

And Canadian sales of new Class four-seven trucks to be 282,250 units in 2025, up 5.3 from 2024. However, supply has caught up with demand and we believe the medium duty market may begin to slow in 2025. Nevertheless, we believe that our expertise in the medium duty sector and our Ready to Roll program will help us achieve strong medium duty commercial sales in 2025. We sold 7,110 used trucks in 2024, basically flat year over year. The used truck market was challenged due to values continuing to default and tight credit, but our disciplined inventory and pricing strategies helped us deliver strong results.

With freight rates showing signs of improvement and used truck values stabilizing, we are cautiously optimistic about 2025. Leasing and rental revenue was $354,900,000 basically flat for 2023. Our Rush Truck Leasing division continues to be a key contributor to our overall performance. While rental revenue was slightly down in the fourth quarter, leasing revenue increased as we replaced 1,500 units in our fleet. As the age of our leasing and rental fleet decreases, we should recognize higher revenue and lower maintenance and operating costs going forward.

We expect our lease and rental business to remain strong in 2025. I wanted to remind everyone that due to seasonal increases in employee benefits and payroll taxes that occur in the first quarter of every year, we expect our G and A expenses to be sequentially higher in the first quarter of twenty twenty five compared to the fourth quarter of twenty twenty four. Lastly, I want to take make a final comment on the proposed tariffs that may impact vehicles and component parts manufactured in Canada, Mexico or China. We are currently monitoring this situation closely. If such tariffs are enacted and significantly increase the aggregate price of new commercial vehicles or parts, we believe the demand for new truck new commercial vehicles and parts could decrease in 2025.

Before we wrap up, I want to thank our employees for their hard work and dedication in 2024. Despite the challenges, they stayed focused on our strategic initiatives and expense reduction goals, helping us achieve strong financial results. With that, I will take your questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. And our first question comes from the line of Andrew Obin of Bank of America. Your line is now open.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Yes. Good morning. Can you hear me?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Yes. We got you, Andrew.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Excellent. Rusty, given your commentary about second half recovery, how should we think about earnings seasonality in ’twenty five versus a normal seasonal pattern? And I’ll just throw in and specifically, when does parts and service turn positive again? So two part question. Thank you.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: You got it. No, Andrew, it’s going to be an interesting year. The first half of the year, we’re still going to see any lingering effects of the freight recession, okay, without question here in the first quarter. We do expect that, but we are seeing signs of activity, right? Regardless of what the numbers showed, like in December, then their order numbers were down in January.

We are seeing in the last few weeks signs of activity that don’t tell me that we’re going to get better in the over the road business in the back half. Vocational businesses are still strong. But we believe that you’re getting I think if you check with the larger over the road guys, they’re starting to get low single to maybe up to try to get maybe the mid single digits on the contracts that are coming up. So that has to take hold, right? That has to take effect, right?

And it just doesn’t happen overnight, but it shows they’ve reached confidence in the over the road carriers. And the fact that, okay, we are we sure bottomed out in the back half of last year like we’ve talked about it prior. Well, now we start getting confidence going forward, and where we’re at going into going on into later into this year. And then I’ll talk a little more in a minute if someone would like me to about what we see when it comes to the government regulations and all with everything up in the air right now. But I do believe I’ll get to the parts and service here in a second.

I do believe that when you ask about what the year is going to look like, the year is going to ramp up from beginning to the end, okay, a tough a tougher start. But I do see and believe that by the time we get into the back half of the year, we’re definitely going to be on the upswing again when it comes to I looked at the overall deliveries in retail in The U. S. In January. We’re down 2,000 units from last January.

So as you know, it’s only a couple of thousand, you are starting being a little softer in January from where you were last year. But we do firmly believe that the back half of the year will continue to ramp up. And I think that you’re still it’s hard to talk about pre bisonol because we’ve got too many regulation uncertainties out there, which I don’t mind getting into, someone would like in a minute, that are still to be we’ve got to figure them out. We’ve got to see what the government does right after the administration. There’s only been in office, what, thirty days now, the new administration.

And obviously, I don’t have to tell everyone that there’s a lot of uncertainty as to how a lot of things, whether it’s tariffs or EPA regulations or any of this stuff, are going to shake out right now. We’ve got thoughts about it. We’re not sure. But I do believe that overall, it’s going to be a ramp up throughout the year from beginning to end. Maybe with a better close than what we had in 2024, that would be my plan.

The back half will definitely should be stronger than the 2024 back half, front half. We’re just going to work our way through it. Look, we had to work last year extremely hard. If you remember, I was calling it hand to mouth, man. We were back in normal regular times where you could get a we didn’t have allocation, right?

You were working to get trucks and you could get them in sixty to ninety days. Well, guess what? That’s still the environment we’re in right now. From a parts and service perspective, it’s going to it goes right along with what I see from when I talk about where we’re at, it goes right along with trust sales, to be honest with, ramping up throughout the year. I do think we may get a little bit more inflation, which will have can have a sometimes a positive effect on parts and service totals when you get through them all.

But we’ll have to see how that all shakes out again. But we do believe that it will ramp up. We will get up into maybe not the first half of the year. Like I said, the first few months fairly flat, but ramping up to mid single digits and growth when we get into the back half of the year is how I’d look at it. You don’t want to do more, but right now I don’t want to get you all to be conservative with my outlook.

I’m not one to really get out over my skis too far as you know me for twenty eight years. So but we have confidence that we’ll be all over the market as it begins to ramp back up and we’ll continue to drive. We still got there’s still runway left in a lot of our strategic initiatives and we’re always working on others behind the scenes that I talk about. So anyway, that would be my take on the year and it’s pretty similar both sides ramping up, especially once we get settled out with all these uncertainties that are out there right now.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Rusty, and just a follow-up question. As things ramp up, how should we think about SG and A was one of the sources of upside in the quarter. How do we think about SG and A control as you ramp into the next cycle? Will it look similar to the prior cycle? Or are there any incremental savings as you get efficiency?

And that will be it for me. Thank you.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: There you go. Put the heat on me on G and A. Remember one thing, S is S. S is directly tied to the sale of trucks, okay? So we run the business off of G and A.

Our S is going to be in that 25% range or so all the time related to the gross profit of trucks. The G and A piece is what we manage on a daily basis. I mean, you can look back at that was a big contributor this last year, big contributor. We were down almost 5%. We were down 4.9% year over year in Q4.

If I’m not mistaken, it was similar, I feel like 7% in Q3. It was sequentially we were sequentially flat with 34%, but three was down like 5.2 if I remember right over two. So we did an outstanding job from my perspective in managing that G and A. As it ramps up as you ramp up parts and service, it’s not like loan in cash, loan in money to someone. It does come with a G and A expense.

And our goals will be to try to keep the gross profit dollars recreated on the back end. We’re going to try to keep 40% or so of that. I’ve got a goal to keep 50% or more, but typically it averages out. If you go in the ramp up period or go over a three year cycle, it will average down in that 40% range, 50% because we’re handling parts, we’re doing this, we’re doing that, we’re working with whole goods, right? So it takes people to do all that work.

But that’s a great situation to be in. And if we can stay close to that 50% number in a ramp up period, then I will be very happy about it. And we’ll continue to we’re looking for that, okay. I’m looking to get back. We were 135 down to 132 in absorption.

And that’s a direct correlation obviously with gross profit on parts and expenses. We lost some gross profit last year, but we managed our expenses well to keep it that type of a number to produce a year like that. When you’re going negative on your parts and service and that’s not easy. Okay. So I would expect us to even do a better job.

I’m not going to get into specifics as to why I believe that, but the world continues to evolve. E commerce continues to evolve, which actually helps. When it comes to expenses, it’s not all the way there. But it’s only going one direction. So always we should be able to do business hopefully cheaper, okay, in the future.

It’s not all the way there yet. We’re in the truck business. We’re not in the most highly technical business in the world. So but it is evolving. And I think there will be opportunities for us to take some of that normal what we see in expenses when the cycle ramps up.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to take some of that out with technology as we move forward. It’s not ever going to go all the way. But at the same time, we ought to be able to do a better job of trying to squeeze those expenses. But it’s still we still have three ninety outside salespeople, right, on the parts and service side. So they’re not going away.

But business I can see a shift in our business. Now this is over a longer period to it continues to shift right now more towards e commerce, etcetera, etcetera, which you would hope you could take some costs out, but it can also bring in make it a more competitive landscape too. So there’s a yin and yang there that you’ve got going with it. But I know I’m giving you a long winded answer, but you’re used to my long winded answers. So trust me, we’ll allow people to do a better job on G and A at the ramp up than we have this week.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Thank you so much.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: You bet you, Brendon.

Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Daniel Imbro of Stephens. Your line is now open.

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: Yes, thanks. Good morning, everyone. This is Brady on for Daniel. Rusty, I wanted to start by asking about your different end markets. You’ve talked about how resilient vocational has been for you in recent years.

How did that market end the year? And while we talked about how Class eight fleet sales probably likely take until the back half to recover, how are you thinking about that vocational side of the business in 2025?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Okay. Yes. No, we believe it will still remain strong. I mean, we haven’t seen I would say we’re starting to fulfill some of that, but there is still strength in vocational. I mean, our construction business, I could possibly see, I can’t believe I am saying this, a little more in the oilfield pickup, which we haven’t had to help offset anything else.

The refuse business is still strong in 2025. So I mean, I see the location remaining strong, maybe not as deep or as big a backlog right at the moment, but still strength in demand, right? So because you had a you had a transmission issue for a while a year ago that actually pushed and we weren’t able to get to all of it. Now we’re chewing away at that, but we still got good demand. And you never know, like I said, it’s crazy for me to think with oil and gas, what the last four years, that was a bad word.

But obviously within Denver administration there, you’re seeing some activity around that sector too, which we haven’t had. So I feel pretty good about it. Again though, look, we’re not backlog. You can build yourself in sixty days if you wanted. It’s not like we’ve got these huge one year backlogs like we had in 2023.

Okay, that’s not the case at all. So there’s no such thing as allocation. There’s plenty of opportunity for build trucks out there right now because most factories, I don’t believe, are running at full tilt at the moment. I mean, they’re running shutdown days and things like that, but they could ramp up build if demand came in line, which is something remember in this industry when demand hits that over the roadside, it happens fast and it happens really quick. So as we get into the back half of the year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see I’m not going to call for allocation in 2026 yet, but I could see it getting there.

A lot has to do with regulations and things. But back to your original question, vocational is still strong, man. And so we feel good about it.

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: Okay, great. Thanks for that color. I wanted to switch gears a bit for my second question and see if we could touch on medium duty. Medium duty has been very strong for you guys in recent years. Could you just talk a little bit about what’s driving that strength and what you’re expecting from medium duty in 2025?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Sure. What drove that strength? Now listen, we went into the year medium duty was had a big backlog, right? They chewed away at it. It all happens.

You have to go back when we had supply issues in 2022 and 2023, because manufacturers that built both medium and heavy chose to take componentry and put it towards heavy because they make more money on it. Well, that gave the medium duty we so you had pent up demand. We medium duty was really stretched out. They weren’t running in this fast and hard demand. But guess what?

Once Class eight slowed down last year, they shoot out the medium duty backlog. So medium duty right now is just like Class eight. I can get you one in sixty days, okay? It’s not that hard to get a medium duty truck at the moment. So while we expect I mentioned in the call, I know that, ACT has medium duty of five something percent.

Kenny is a great friend of mine. I’m not sold on all that right at the moment for 25% to be honest. That’s just a personal opinion. But I do expect we’re going to have a good year. We’ve got some I know in the back half we’ve got some business up in the fourth quarter, but that’s a particular transaction.

And but we’re still should remain I expect to be flat if you want to know the truth in medium throughout the year. That would be about where I would think our medium is. So that’s strong. Like you said, we’ve got strong results. I expect it will rainstorm.

Is there a lot more to get this year there? I don’t think so. I don’t see it right now. But because we’ve caught up with that pent up demand that was created by the medium duty not being the focus, but Class A being the focus of the supply side as the supply side has caught up. So medium duty is caught up.

So but there’s still good demand out there. It’s just you don’t have these pent up big backlogs like we used to have. So I hope that sheds a little color on it. So I’m just personally, I’m thinking it’s going to be probably flat. I think both sides of it.

But I do expect to be somewhat backloaded, okay, especially in 8s. I’m not sure about medium, I can say that for sure. But for sure, on the backlogs in the back half, back to the eight, that’s what we talked about ramping up, hopefully ramping up throughout the back half of the year. And medium duty, probably pretty constant to the year. But looking at a flat year over year.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay, great.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Thanks for the

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Yes. Go ahead, Rusty. Okay.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: No, I mean, as I said and I’d like to talk about it in a minute, right? There’s another call. I’ll ramble on here in a minute about some of the uncertainties and things that are out there that will really dictate the year right now. But I have confidence in the year, but there are things surrounding our environment, just like there have been in the last thirty days that we’re all waiting to get clarity on. So with regulations, tariffs and all that wonderful stuff, which can create a little bit of hesitation for folks out there.

But I did say, as I mentioned earlier, we’re seeing some activity better in the last couple of three weeks in spite of all the non clarity. It’s not real clear to me as to the uncertainty about where rules and regs and how things are going to fall out here, which have a very direct correlation on the decisions that the business people make inside their truck business. My voice is not clear.

Andrew Obin, Analyst, Bank of America: Maybe if I could just add one quick final one. You built a lot of cash

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: on the balance sheet in recent quarters. Can you just talk about uses of cash, Rusty? Are you seeing anything in the M and A pipeline? Kind of what are you seeing there for 2025?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, M and A is always my first option to spend money, right? We have a committed for seven, eight years, nine years, we’ve committed to return 35%, forty % back to shareholders, which we’ve been doing. Some years might be 50%, some might be 30 It just depends we try to be opportunistic in repurchasing. We’ve been consistently raising our, oh, I think our dividend 8%, nine %, ten % or somewhere in that range. We raised it in the second dividend in Q2.

We take a look at it. Yes, we’re in pretty good shape. I’ve been I’ve got we’ve read for your information, we redid all our credit lines in December and got a five year run on all that. That has got us set up if we need we can push we can pull cash we got good cash on the balance sheet and I have great structure to get cash if needed quickly. So we’re set up to do M and A, we just got to find it right.

And trust me, that responsibility falls on me. I probably need to get a find a couple of deals that do work for us. I don’t have anything imminent and I wouldn’t tell you if it did. So, but I mean, I say that, I’m always looking at them and talking to other people, you better believe it. But there’s nothing huge.

There’s some small deals. We’ve added a store up in Nebraska, a couple of stores in Nebraska back in the summer. Really haven’t added anything but Greenfield since couple of Greenfield places. But yes, I’m always in conversations. But as I said, even if it was imminent, I probably wouldn’t tell you.

So that is the first choice of cash and then the second choice is to return to shareholders. We didn’t repurchase as much last year as we did the prior year. But understand our approval is we approved on the December 1. So when I look at what we repurchased last year, I throw in a $65,000,000 repurchase that we had in December of twenty twenty three. And really after that prior when we approved, we approved a new $150,000,000 every one of December.

So we are repurchasing currently. Every day we do on a 10b5. So we repurchase the acquired period consistently all the time right now. So I would expect our repurchase, unless I spend it on M and A, will be more than the calendar year 2024 should probably be end up being more, I’m pretty sure I know it will, in 2025 because we still believe outside giving you any shareholders a dividend, but repurchasing our stock is a clear direction from management and the belief in this organization. And we’ve shown that throughout the last eight or nine years, consistently doing it.

And we will consistently do it and continue because I still believe we’re a great value and we’ve got a lot in front of us and there you go. There’s your cash answer.

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: Okay, great.

Conference Operator: Thanks for

Daniel Imbro, Analyst, Stephens: all the time this morning, Rusty. I’ll pass it along.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Thank you, my friend. You bet.

Conference Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Hello.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Yuri Youssefowicz of UBS. Your line is now open.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Hey, good morning. Good morning.

Yuri Youssefowicz, Analyst, UBS: It sounds like you’re interested in talking about some of the policy uncertainties, so interested in unpacking some of that. So starting with the emissions regulations and the engine changeover, what are the latest customers like conversations with customers looking like around the pre buy? Are you hearing any more uncertainty or less?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Yes. Well, I mean, it’s interesting, right, because you got to know a map, right? When you go someplace and you’re going into unknown territories, it’s always good to have a map where you’re going. Well, we thought we had a very clear map as to where things were headed, as clear as mud is anyway, as to what was going to happen in 2024 in California, what was going to happen in 2027. Well, the new and I’m going to say I want to speak like I’m a customer because I am a customer, okay?

I’m the middle guy. I am a customer also. So clarity, not right now. If you look back in the last oh, back in prior to the new administration coming on, ACF were clean fuel trucks, that was for our customer base. They were going to have to roll in electric, bev trucks and stuff over a time frame.

That was thrown out, okay? Right now as of last Friday for Valentine’s Day, the EPA is challenging ACT or clean truck, which affects all the OEMs, which is how they’re going to have to sell this many electric and do this much all these rules and regulations. I’m not going to get into all the detail or I got a lot of I got three or four people on my staff that are way more intelligent about it than I am. I know just enough to be dangerous, okay? So that is up in the air because it got approved outside of Congress.

They’re saying it should have been approved in Congress. So they’re taking it to Congress. Now how it all were sorted to sell that, that’s the new administration, which is obviously totally different than the prior administration, okay? They’re promoting big promoters. I mean, while still we understand there’s an environment issue, but they’re staying with carbon fuels for all, right?

While we still work on the technology piece, which in truth is the right thing. So I don’t know how it’s going to shake out. I don’t expect the diesel emissions regs that are in place to go into place in ’twenty seven to change. I think it could line up. You had a 0.2 and a 0.035.

I personally think, I’m going to be wrong, they’ll probably end up settling and this is just my personal thing and they go aligning it at 35. Well, that’s still you’ve got to clean it up more, okay? Remember, we’re just talking about diesel. It’s still diesel. We’re taking the bev piece and taking the electric piece and pushing it out.

That’s what’s going to happen. That then taking some of your greenhouse gas stuff and which is tied to the bev in 02/1930 and all these other years, I expect all that to get stretched out. That’s my opinion. Okay. I do expect the new rules and regs around diesel to stay.

Now, are they going to stay in the same context the way they’re written now, where you’ve got these huge long warranties on after treatment, that have never existed. They take up a lot of the cost. You’re talking nobody’s really given a price of that. They’re like all manufacturers, all manufacturers wait and then surprise you. But we’re talking about $15,000 20 thousand dollars and with after treatment.

Now a lot of that is around is written in because of the warranties. Could those change? I hear rumors all the time that they might change a lot of that cost. So that would change some of the costing of it. I don’t know that it will or it won’t, but all those types of issues are what are going to be vetted here pretty quickly.

We are still look we’ve been cleaning diesel up for a long time. I mean, go back to 1988, ’60, I might say, 60 trucks today produced what one truck produced back then when it comes to NOx and things like that. That’s a crazy number to me. We cleaned it up in 02/2004. We cleaned it up in 02/2007.

We cleaned it up in 2010. So we’re going to clean it up again. I don’t but we’re going to slow down. What those numbers turn out to be, what those warnings, I can’t tell you yet because that was Friday, it was happy Valentine’s Day. Later they just announced the EPA did that they’re going to try to run this all back to Congress.

And I but the OEMs have spent way too much money on this after treatment stuff preparing for this. I don’t see it going away. That’s just my all we’re doing is cleaning up diesel, man. We’ve done it a lot. We’ve done it for decades, okay?

So there’s nothing that’s the right thing to do. The right thing to do is to do that push out some of these bev requirements because they’re way ahead. I mean, look, we got 120 I’m sorry, I’m just talking plain. We got one hundred and twenty years, one hundred and twenty years of infrastructure around internal combustion and we’re going to change it in six, seven years. Give me a break, okay.

We don’t have the grid. We don’t have the infrastructure. There are so many. Is it the right thing probably to do long term? Yes.

But also doing it with automotive is different than trucks. Trucks do so many different application. You know what a car does? I don’t care if it’s a Kia or Ferrari (NYSE:RACE). It goes from point A to point B, okay?

That’s what the car does. Trucks, I don’t care if they’re picking up garbage, pouring concrete, hanging sides in the oilfield, over the road. They do so many different applications that I expect it to be a multi pronged answer when we get there, but it doesn’t get done in this short period of time. So, Rusty is rambling on about his own thoughts. We’ll get it done in twenty years.

We’ll get that will be more. That will be for a lot of applications around town and this, that and the other. But we don’t have the necessary components. I mean, I use this in my simple way. I was some people think it’s like plugging in a hairdryer.

Let me tell you something, it’s not, okay. It’s way more complicated than that because of the grid and infrastructure and everything else. We can’t even catch up on the cars, right? And automobiles will be way easier to do than trucks because of all the different applications. So you’re getting a long rambling answer as I always say, but I expect we’re going to go through with the diesel changes.

They could tweak them, but if we could tweak the warranties. But we’re not going to change flipping the diesel switch again in 2017 because there’s been too much spent, too much prepped. We will go through in some form or fashion. But what will happen is the other stuff will get pushed out to give our industries time to refine the technology and the things that are needed to do it properly, okay? We’re not there, man.

And And to do all that we were trying to do it. I understand we got to do a better job cleaning the environment up. But we got to do it within the bounds of reality. There’s your answer. I think there’ll be a free buy.

I don’t know how it all shake out to how much because any time you come with new after treatment and stuff, boy, do I remember 2010, okay? Everything was all in its DPS clogged everywhere, etcetera, etcetera. I’m not saying that that will be the case. I’m saying there always is issues we’ll be dealing with issues with all the new diesel technology, which is typical, okay, when you do things like this. That’s how it works.

But it’s something we can work on and do, something we’ve got one hundred plus years dealing with, right? So we’ll figure all that while behind the scenes we do the right things to get into these other technologies whether it is not everything is going to be electric and hydrogen and fuel cell and all this other. While that continues to progress and then it’ll take its place over the next twenty years.

Yuri Youssefowicz, Analyst, UBS: Got it. Makes sense to me and I appreciate the perspective there. Shifting over to tariffs, so I know you noticed that the uncertainty around that and the prospect that it could really increase the price of trucks and squeeze demand. Oh, man. So I guess two things there.

One, just could you help frame for us what that impact would be on the cost of a new truck? And also with the uncertainty, are you doing anything differently this year in terms of managing your inventory to try to mitigate that risk?

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Well, first off, about seventeen days ago, maybe 18 on a Saturday, I’m going, are you kidding me? Okay. We’re really going to put 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada. I understand the Chinese part, but the automotive sector and I’m not just talking drugs. There is nothing more tied to Mexico than the automotive sector, okay?

I mean, all the suppliers, all the manufacturers, everybody’s got plants down there and stuff. And it’s like, you gotta be kidding me. I understand, and I don’t understand fentanyl, but I read about it. And I understand the immigration issues, but you’re messing with an economy now, let me tell you. You’re talking if it’s manufactured down there, you’re talking $30.40000 in a truck.

And even if trucks that are manufactured in The US, they’ll have components free in them. If you put a 25% tariff on there, that’d probably be another 10,000. Automobiles will be 6,000, 8 thousand depending on who and where and what. I mean, it gives us always remember the devil’s in the detail and the fine print, right? So I’m not the expert on all of that.

But I got to tell you, that makes absolutely zero sense to me. I believe I told everybody since new administration was announced back in November that it’s a negotiation. I cannot believe that we would go do that. Look, those factories, it’s not like China. Those are our factories.

I’m on the border. I’ve been

Yuri Youssefowicz, Analyst, UBS: on the border. I’m more

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: and raised in Texas, okay? I have the whole border for Peterbilt all the way from Tijuana to Brownsville. I understand. We built those Miqueladore plants back in the ’80s. Okay.

They’re our stuff and more and more and more. I cannot see doing that. I just truly can’t see. That we own them. It’s not like 75 China.

We own those factories, okay? It just makes absolutely zero sense to me. We need a strong solid neighbor on the South. And it’s just a labor We build all that stuff down there, but it’s all our stuff. So it really doesn’t make any sense to me.

Would there be disruption? Yes. Is there something I can do? Well, first, somebody tell me a date. I got two weeks.

Okay. No, I can’t do anything in two weeks. We would just deal with it. But you talk about Cripple and then this, you got to realize like Laredo, Texas, that’s the biggest port in The United States. I don’t care about these ocean ports.

There’s more freight coming through out of Mexico than the EPA. I’m on I-thirty 5. I look out my window right back. Over half the vehicles are trucks going up and down the highway, okay. And it’s all from manufacturing that goes on in the South.

And I don’t know, we’d come up with a workforce to do it all anyway, as we work our way through it. But I’m getting into my own personal views here about all that, but you’re going to know because I don’t mind telling. So it just makes no sense to me. I’ve got to believe it’s saber rattling and negotiations. Maybe there will be some hand slaps and things like that on the risk or something.

I’m not close enough to the government to really know what they’re thinking. But I don’t see doing that with your two bordering neighbors, one to the North and one to the South, the only ones you border. Okay. I don’t I have a hard time making sense out of that personally, especially when we built it all. Okay.

So I think we drove all that ourselves. It wasn’t driven by it. Do people have plans? Yes, OEMs have contingency plans around how they would get around it. But it would be costly and it would be cumbersome to implement and take time, but sure they do.

OEMs are thinking about it, they have to, I have to, yes, I thought about it. But I have a hard time believing we’re really going to do this next quarter. Again, that’s just my opinion. I could be dead ass wrong, excuse me, dead wrong. But don’t worry, we thought about it.

We’re behind the scenes. Yes, there are plans as to what we would do, how would we react. I just have a hard time believing we really do it.

Yuri Youssefowicz, Analyst, UBS: That makes sense. I guess moving a little bit away from the uncertainty towards what we’re seeing today. So I know second half last year there was a bit of discounting on new truck pricing. And so just wondering if that’s something that we should be expecting here for the first half

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: of twenty twenty five as well? No, I expect most of the stuff that we’re doing right now is pretty flat. Slight I mean slight maybe increase. I don’t see a lot of discounting, maybe a one off deal here or there, but there’s not broad based discounting going on. I mean, we’d already taken margin out last year, okay?

Somewhat when I say that the manufacturers and then it’s through us and we’ve managed to maintain a good blended margin. That’s what I always tell folks. Remember, we don’t sell just heavy duty, we sell media, we sell used. So we’ve done that pretty good job. I’ll keep it over 9% or better of blended margin.

So was new compressed a little bit? Yes. Do I see it getting compressed a whole lot more? No. I think we’ll be pretty we’ve already been a little bit compressed on its idle.

I think most OEMs, what we’ve been planning on having a pre buy, right? So they were trying to maintain what they felt. And you can look at their margins are off some. You can look at it later in the back half of last year, there’s no question. But I don’t know how much more there is to take out of that.

I think there will be enough demand to keep things pretty flat to be honest with you without getting any increases in anything off either. I expect everything to stay pretty flat.

Yuri Youssefowicz, Analyst, UBS: All right. Very helpful. That’s it for me. Appreciate the time. Thank you.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: You bet. Thank you, sir.

Conference Operator: Thank you. I’m showing no further questions at this time. I’d now like to turn it back to Rusty Rush for closing remarks.

Rusty Rush, Chairman, CEO and President, Rush Enterprises: Okay. I guess, I look forward to talking to everybody in April. This is the shortest time between calls. I’ll talk to everybody in about two months. And thank you for your participation today.

Conference Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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